The Devil Of The White City; H. H. Holmes

This is the devil of the white city. He is the master of trickery, a fraudster and most of the time, a sadist who enjoys watching people suffer a great deal of pain. I must say that throughout my experience as a medical doctor in 1 and a half years, I'm pretty bad at watching people who were in pain. I'm not sure I'm fit in any discipline which requires us to treat people who were suffering just because I can't see them suffer which is why I have decided to specialise in infectious diseases (probably just working in a lab) in the future. Chemicals such as chloroform might not be that dangerous and its capability is often exaggerated by laymen and the media (or fatal) but when it is used to sedate people and burned them later, it is a whole different story. Regardless, it was established that this is one of the ways used by Holmes to kill his victim just to satisfy his urges to kill someone.

Although after he was apprehended he only confessed to 27 murders, the number of crimes/murders he committed can possibly be much higher than what was documented. Some speculated that he committed more than 200 murders but as the technology and forensic-related knowledge were inadequate in that point of time, most of his suspected kills can't be implicated on him. Just like what has been said by various people with a lot of experiences in forensic science that we can't judge the brutality of a serial killer solely by the number of his/her victim but how they carried out their deeds. Being a sadist surely a plus point for Holmes to climb up the rank of being one of the most vicious killers in the history of mankind. His victims were often tortured before they were killed and the majority of these deeds were done inside of his famous "murder castle" located in the Chicago.

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The internal structure of the castle was different than what can be thought as a good building. Whether the design was intentional or the one who supervised people during the construction was a dumbass, no one knows the real reason. The only thing that we can be sure of is that Holmes knew the structure of every corner of his building but never ever complained about it so we can assume that it was part of his plan to make it how it appears to the public eye; just a dumb contractor. Some documentaries described that apart from being a murder scene, his castle act as a maze containing rooms without doors or doors without rooms. It's how he can guarantee his intention of killing people and obviously he can't let his victim escape, at least not as easily. Putting a "Hotel" sign in front of his infamous building sure will attract a lot of customers a.k.a the potential victim of his heinous scheme and from the dusty registration table, he can pick his victim and intentionally placed them in a more suitable location within the hotel.

In 2003, Schechter, an American true crime writer described the murder castle as distorted in the inside yet looks elegant on the outside like Holmes himself. One should not judge the interior based on what has been displayed on the exterior because you might be surprised (and probably too late for you to realise that), you are basically dead once you were inside. The upper portion of the building filled with torture devices along with equipment to kill his victims and after the deed has been carried out, all of the bodies would be cut, disembowelled and stripped before it was disposed of through a metal chute. It provides an easier access to dispose of all of the corpses so that it can serve as the foundation of the hotel itself. It's like a graveyard for his victims, being displayed as an expensive and luxurious hotel among others in Chicago.

The Killing Intent

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Being a doctor, there are a few ways that can be done to conceal the deed of killing people. Let's take Harold Shipman for an example, he treated close to 3000 patients and he was convicted to the killing of only 15 of them; did he killed more than what he admitted? Maybe, no one knows for sure. Some of the method used by him is purely medical but to conceal his activity, he purposely falsified his treatment record to make it believable that his victim died either due to medical incompetencies or unexpected complications from certain procedures. In the 1980s, all of the doctors who supervised or treated a patient who died should issue the certificate of death. In it, one of the most important pieces of information that would allow Harold to be free of suspicion is the cause of death. According to the Royal College of Physician, back then, the cause of death can be inaccurate. The medical doctor should determine the cause of death to the best of their own medical knowledge which allows Harold to make something up.

However, it's rather strange that all of the death certificates of the victims of his murder were approved by medical doctors, putting up their own signature as a confirmatory gesture. We can assume then that the doctors were incompetence in which they didn't receive any sort of formal training in recognising the cause of death or they can be Harold's accomplices. Regardless, the point I'm trying to make here is that no one in this world can be trusted and underestimated of what they actually can accomplished. Often we can predict what kind of people that they can be in the future, but it will remains, a prediction. Let's take one of the most popular attributes that were associated with people who have murderous interest, or in the psychiatric term, exhibiting an anti-social personality; animal abuses. In one record, it was stated that Holmes was experimenting actively with animals to satisfy his killing urges. That act to satisfy his primal desire subsequently turned to curiosity as his subject changed from reptiles to mammals and it was speculated that he killed his own childhood friends but present it as an accident. People would believe that definitely, they would, Holmes is just a child!

In 1985, Kellert and Felthous wrote 9 reasons why people were abusing animals:

• Attempts to control an animal (e.g., hitting a dog to stop it barking)
• Retaliation (e.g., use of extreme punishment for a perceived transgression on the part of the animal such as throwing a cat against a wall for vomiting in the house)
• Acting out of prejudice against a particular species or breed. Such a motivation is accompanied by the belief that the particular animal is not worthy of moral consideration
• The expression of aggression through an animal (e.g., organising dog fights)
• Acting out of the motivation to enhance one's own aggression (e.g., using animals for target practice or to impress others)
• To shock people for amusement (abuse that is very overt and observed by others)
• To retaliate against another person or as revenge (e.g., killing or maiming the companion animal of a disliked neighbour)
• Displacement of aggression from a person to an animal
• Non-specific sadism which refers to the desire to inflict suffering, injury or death in the absence of any particular or hostile feelings toward an animal.

It was noted that people who are often associated with animal abuse were weak and vulnerable which motivate them to commit such act to hide their own insecurities. Child abuses, for example, could exaggerate fear and thus by abusing animals, which are easier to commit rather than protesting parents, would spare them the frustration of being dominated. There are too many things which are unknown regarding Holmes's childhood but we can assume that he could be possibly one of the victims himself.

This is one of the many series of articles that I would publish to make it fun and interesting. I'm not into serious stuff so I hope I did and will do well later on. Special thanks to @conficker for inviting, supervising and the latest, editing this article even though you are busy. Thank you for your attention and good day.

References

• Bill O'Neill (2000). Doctor as murderer. Link
• Schechter, H. (2003). The serial killer files.
• Taylor, T. (2003). The Murder Castle Of H. H. Holmes. Link
• Jerrod Brown (et al) (2005). H.H. Holmes: One of America’s First Recorded Serial Murderers. Link
• Eleonora, G. (2011). Conceptualising Animal Abuse with an Antisocial Behaviour Framework. Link
• The Infographic Show (2018). H. H. Holmes - The Most Horrific Serial Killer in US History? Link